The Melbourne Police Department is advising motorists to anticipate significant traffic delays during the morning hours of Saturday and Sunday (Feb. 4 and 5) as running competitions are staged by a private organization. Affected roadways include U.S. 1, the Melbourne and Eau Gallie causeways, South Patrick Drive, and numerous residential streets.
The event, called ‘The Melbourne & Beaches Music Marathon,’ is to host thousands of competitors in foot races and a hand-bike race. The flow of traffic is to be maintained during the events, but the progress of many motorists on the affected roadways will be slowed by detours and lane closings. Selection of alternate routes is recommended.
A listing of the streets that are to be affected by the marathon, including residential streets where through traffic will not be allowed, is availableat melbourneflorida.org/news/marathon.htm. The list compiled by the City's Engineering Department includes downtown Melbourne streets to be closed from 6 a.m. to noon on Saturday, and streets in both the Melbourne and Eau Gallie areas that are to be closed from the early morning hours on Sunday to at least 1 p.m. on Sunday.
The event sponsor, Smooth Running LLC, is required to notify affected residents and businesses about planned street closings. Information about the marathon event is available at the organizer’s web site, themelbournemarathon.com, along with course maps.
On Saturday, event-related activities are to include a 5K race and an 8K race. The morning closings will include one eastbound lane of the Melbourne Causeway and numerous residential streets south of New Haven Avenue and east of Babcock Street. Municipal Lane is closed between U.S. 192 and New Haven Avenue from 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 3, to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 5.
On Sunday, the events include a full marathon race and a half-marathon race. Closings planned to begin on midnight Saturday will affect U.S. 1, Eau Gallie Boulevard, U.S. 192, and Palmetto Avenue. Street closings to begin at 2:30 a.m. Sunday will affect many other streets, particularly in the old Eau Gallie area south of Montreal Avenue and the Melbourne downtown area near New Haven Avenue. All of the lane closures on Sunday are to end by 1 p.m.
The City of Melbourne has been rated among the best in the country in the suppression of structure fires, an accomplishment that is expected to reduce overall insurance costs for homes and businesses in the city.
After a detailed survey, an independent company has assigned Melbourne with an ‘ISO’ insurance rating of 2, to be effective on the first day of 2012. Melbourne previously had a rating of 4 on a scale that goes to 10, with 1 being the best. The ISO ratings, prepared by the New Jersey-based Insurance Services Office, Inc., are used nationwide by insurance companies in determining rates. They are issued with a lengthy ‘Public Protection Classification Summary Report.’
Fire Chief Paul Forsberg said the improvement reflects work by his department as well as others with responsibilities ranging from maintenance of fire hydrants to enforcement of fire safety codes and the dispatching of emergency vehicles. The City was last rated 12 years ago.
“We have to continue what we are doing and make additional improvements in order to maintain that rating and our level of protection for the community,” Forsberg said.
The rating puts Melbourne in a category with 592 other departments nationwide that have earned the 2 rating. Some 46,589 communities have a lower rating, and only 61 communities with fire departments have a rating of 1.
In Florida, 33 communities have a rating of 2, while nine have a rating of 1. Another 683 communities have a rating of 3 or higher, indicating a lower level of service.
The ISO rating for Melbourne takes into account factors that include the locations of eight fire stations, the level of staffing and equipment, availability of water, and the emergency notification options.
Forsberg said the way in which Melbourne’s readiness to suppress fires impacts insurance rates should be substantial, although more likely to be noticed by businesses. “Insurance rates are determined by the various companies, taking into account factors including the ISO ratings,” Forsberg said. “In our community, there may be a substantial overall savings. For individual businesses and homeowners, whatever rate reductions become available may be modest. Obviously, in the current economy, any savings on insurance will be welcome.”
Insurance Services Office, Inc., notes that surveys are conducted when it appears that a community’s rating may have changed. Forsberg said Melbourne’s next rating will likely come in five years or less.
The selection of Steve Mimbs to continue to serve as chief of police for the City of Melbourne has been announced by City Manager Jack Schluckebier. Mimbs began serving as chief following the health-related departure of former chief Don Carey in March 2010.
Mimbs, 50, joined the department in 1980 and has earned promotions through the ranks to the command staff. He was promoted to the rank of commander in 2001 and began eight years of service as a deputy chief in 2004. Mimbs is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and completed Florida Department of Law Enforcement senior leadership training. He has earned several commendations as a police officer. He holds bachelor's and master’s degree from Barry University.
The selection came after a national awareness campaign resulted in 79 applications. The recruitment process included two separate sets of interviews and background checks for finalists. In addition to Mimbs, finalists were Lee Spector, who retired from the Ft. Lauderdale police department as a captain, and Robert Boone, currently police chief for Rio Rancho, New Mexico.
The City Manager commended Mimbs for his leadership and stabilizing influences on the department. “Chief Mimbs has risen to the occasion and aptly demonstrated his capabilities. He took leadership of a department that was experiencing internal strife, providing direction and a calming influence. He has described his vision of decreasing crime and improving customer service by using diverse means of continued improvement for the department.”
Chief Mimbs credited officers and employees of his department for recent successes in reducing crime. “The members of the department have pulled together and have continually focused on reducing crimes and improving the quality of life for our citizens,” Mimbs said. “The Melbourne Police Department is an excellent law enforcement agency, and it is an honor for me to be selected to lead an organization with such dedicated employees.”
The police department has 239 employees, 168 of them sworn officers. The City's police department operates on a $23.6-million budget.
The holiday weekend will likely bring with it an abundant harvest of illegal, roadside signs that Code Enforcement Administrator Dan Porsi says must be removed from roadway rights-of-way in order to ensure that motorists and pedestrians have safe visibility. Problems associated with the roadside signs include the likelihood that they will fly through the air in windy conditions, sometimes ending up where they will block drains.
"We usually pick up more than 100 illegal signs on holiday weekends," Porsi said. "The people who are placing these signs along the roads seem to think that we are not working on holidays."
Porsi would prefer to have those with small signs follow the rules that are spelled out in Melbourne's city code. Signs are not permitted on any public tree, pole, post. They are prohibited from all public rights-of-way, roadway medians, and landscaped or grassed areas.
"We make every effort to let people know that signs cannot go alongside the roads, because that costs them money that they could apply elsewhere to benefit their activity or business," Porsi said. Confiscated signs are held for three days before disposal.
The drinking water that the City of Melbourne provides to most of the southern Brevard County area has now been judged as the best tasting in Central Florida, earning top honors in a blind-sample competition that included water from utilities serving the greater Orlando area.
A panel of judges recently gathered to consider the taste, odor, color, and clarity of water samples from 12 providers competing in the eighth annual "Central Florida's Finest! 2011 Best Tasting Drinking Water Contest." The contest is a joint effort with the Florida Water Environmental Association's Central Florida Chapter and the Florida Section of the American Water Works Association, Region III.
Melbourne is now eligible to participate in the "Best Drinking Water, State of Florida" competition, which takes place at the Florida Water Resources Conference in Orlando on May 3.
The Central Florida honor prompted Mayor Harry Goode to issue a proclamation declaring April 26 as "Melbourne Water Quality Day." The proclamation "encourages all citizens and businesses to help protect our water quality sources, practice water conservation, and enjoy the best tasting water in Central Florida from your taps."
During a City Council meeting on April 26, the award is to be presented to the city by Rajah Augustinraj, the contest coordinator. He is an employee of engineering firm CH2M Hill. Contest judges included two representatives of WKMG Television, meteorologist Tom Sorrells and general manager Skip Valet, along with Dwight Jenkins, consumptive use policy development coordinator with the St. Johns River Water Management District; Steven Memberg, with the Water Use Regulatory Division of the South Florida Water Management District; and Jason Parillo of ITT Corporation.
Water samples were submitted from the cities of DeLand, Clermont, St. Cloud, Altamonte Springs, Port Orange, Winter Garden, Winter Park, and Casselberry, along with samples from the Orlando Utilities Commission, Orange County Utilities, and Lake Utility Services, Inc.
Each water provider submitted a one-gallon sample, kept at room temperature to allow any tastes or odors to be detected more easily. All of the utilities offering samples also affirmed that they had no state or federal drinking water violations for the current or prior calendar year.
Ralph Reigelsperger, director of the City's Public Works and Utilities Department, saluted the work of water production employees who provide more than 15-million gallons of water to Melbourne area homes and businesses on an average day.
"This is a great recognition for the City of Melbourne and a reflection of the quality of work performed by Water Production Superintendent Fred Davis and his staff. We can all be extremely proud of this achievement," Reigelsperger said.